February 17, 2011

At yesterday's demonstration against Scott Walker's budget plan, Meade took this video of a woman with a sign portraying the Governor with a Hitler mustache. Meade conducts a short interview, then catches a young man with a bullhorn explaining that we need to tax the rich.

169 comments:

I know it's generally funny to see such an obviously oblivious person believing that Walker = Hitler because she has to pay a little for health insurance, but really it's not that funny.That ignorant dishrag is charged with teaching American children. That's a national emergency that should be addressed far beyond the borders of WI.

The fact is that the bottom 50 percent on the income ladder currently pays less than 3 percent of federal income taxes while the top 10 percent carries 70 percent of the burden. This is ample proof that income taxes are already progressive enough. But wait- the left insist tax hikes will increase revenue and help the economy. lol. right.Actually - Obama himself admitted that tax hikes won't increase revenue, but he is OK with that because the left's real objective is to be punitively "fair".

Ann gets paid $160,000.00 by the taxpayers of Wisconsin to barely work and she thinks she is the one that should be turning up her nose and saying state workers are paid too much?

Like with all groups, among government workers there are some bad apples. Ann is one of these free loading bad apples. It is funny how her few groupies here eat her B.S. by the pile full!

Now go buy something at Amazon and make her more money. Tiny question Jay, did Althouse call in “sick” and protest…how about YOU or your Significant Other? Who’s committing a fraud? Who’s teaching their class(es)? Get back to me will you?

Bullhorn dude is seriously deluded. These people have convinced themselves that they are demonstrating against "the rich." Can someone clue these fuckers in that they are actually demonstrating against poor citizens who are barely scraping by?

It hard to take Ann Althouse serious when she is a perfect case of someone abusing the the system. Why doesn't Ann show some independent will get off her butt and find a job in the private sector?

Instead, she takes $160,000.00 from the taxpayers of Wisconsin for barely working. • “Independent”, I believe you mean INDEPENDENCE. Please proof-read before kvetching why don’t you?• Again, did Althouse call in sick? Did she teach her class(es) that day?• “Instead, she takes $160,000.00 from the taxpayers of Wisconsin for barely working.”, but at least she shows up for work, and doesn’t protest and litter outside the Capitol for her phony-baloney job…unlike some I could mention *Cough*Jay*Cough*….

I think what she's done is to present the side that always gets blocked out. And, here, she's following her classroom tactic of encouraging her students to be able to support any given side of an argument.

Joe, the grammar kettle called to let you know that "independent will" is proper usage, lacking merely a comma between "will" and "get off her butt," much like your failure to use a comma between "kvetching" and "why don't you."

Shoutingtomas Althouse is doing what she always does. She is throwing redmeat to a small cadre of righties. She is not encouraging any serious consideration of all sides. That is fine, but don't pretend otherwise.

That woman with the Hitler sign was, no doubt, carrying Bush = HItler signs a few years ago. She could not comprehend that anyone would disagree with her. Did you see her expression ? What ? You don't agree Walker is Hitler ?

She probably never meets anyone who disagrees in her daily life. They are tribal and surround themselves with those who have no new thoughts.

By the way, Hitler was a socialist and did not stop union organizing. He just put people who agreed with him in charge. Sort of like those people.

Shoutingtomas Althouse is doing what she always does. She is throwing redmeat to a small cadre of righties. She is not encouraging any serious consideration of all sides. That is fine, but don't pretend otherwise.

I'm not pretending. And, I'm not exactly a redmeat eating fan of Althouse.

What she's done in all these posts, it seems to me, is to contrast the major media's coverage of Tea Party protests with the coverage given to Wisconsin's protesting public workers.

And, she's asking, in just about every post: "Why is it good for one side, but not the other?"

That seems a pretty serious discussion to me.

Why, for example, is the right encouraging political assassination if it shows a picture of a state with a bullseye superimposed? Doesn't that argue that the left is encouraging violence when it employs protest signs of a public official hanged in effigy?

@Jay Retread She is not encouraging any serious consideration of all sides.

Too bad it ends up, in your case, stimulating a rather immature reaction. You can participate in serious consideration on here all you want, its your choice not to, not Ann's encouragement. If anything you could choose, as others do (e.g. Madison Man or Garage) to offer intelligent points of view. But you don't want to debate.

It is interesting that up to 2/3s of Wisconsin cooperations pay little or no tax, and the greedy of Wall Street, except for Madoff, have not been fined. And who do you think will suffer with the continued decline of the middle class; I suspect it will be some of the small business owners who have enjoyed what these union slugs spend in their establishments.

So President Obama goes on television saying, "Some of what I’ve heard coming out of Wisconsin, where they’re just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally, seems like more of an assault on unions." The underlying assumption is that unions are good and an assault on unions is bad.

Compare this with the views of a former president who was the darling of the left, FDR: "All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. . . . The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for . . . officials . . . to bind the employer. . . . The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives." Does this mean that FDR = Hitler?

Hilarious. Apparently all the Democrat Senators have fled Madison. Unwilling to make hard choices, they leave their constituents completely unrepresented. Just like the Teachers. These jackasses deserve each other. Sadly, WI kids deserve far better.

My wife is a teacher. Worked as state employee for several years then became elementary teacher via alternative certification process.

I admit that one of the things we look forward to and are counting on is having our medical insurance mostly taken care of down the road.

That having been said (1) I admit that the pension system isn't financially viable - even a generous matching contribution system would be better - and is going to break the state budget very soon (her former boss retired and his pension is about $80k) (2) we do pay part of our insurance costs and this is why my wife takes home only about 2/3 of what she makes (school insurance is way better than what my employee offers).

It's hard to lose or give up something that's become part of the family budget. I understand that. But most people do contribute some part of insurance and retirement costs. Expecting it all for free is unreasonable. Not to mention *states can no longer afford it*.

Steve, I will gladly pay more for health and retirement, but why eliminate bargaining rights? After all the rich get huge leverage with lobbyist and advisors who surround our President, so what is left for the middle class folks except a few unions?

You can tell she's a teacher by the bemused expression she projects when asked about her sign. Why, it's axiomatic, of course.

Can you imagine yourself in serious conversation with Bullhorn Boy? How far can you imagine getting beyond "corporations" and "the rich?" It cannot be borne. The whole time you're standing there thinking, "Oh, just shut up and be gorgeous. Take off your clothes and do a little dance or something interesting."

This is just Godwin's law put into effect. My favorite sign is "Don't Tread On Me' because it equates taxation with the failure to increase taxation to cover a debt. Most of these kids don't know what they are talking about and just protesting because it's cool and because someone told them to protest.

It's kind of funny how the liberals are so keen on taking other people's money for themselves. Why should the private sector get perks the public sector is denied at the majority expense of the private sector?

1. If you want to buy something through my Amazon portal, it's always there in the side bar of the blog.

2. I've been teaching at UW Law School since 1984 and I have not once called in sick. I have never cancelled a class except to do a professional speaking engagement at a conference out of town or something like that.

3. I don't think it's tax money that pays law professors. It's tuition. There's a classroom and a teacher lecturing or conducting a discussion. Just words in a room.

4. If a comment disappears it probably got snagged as spam. I need to release it from the spam box. Tends to happen sometimes when you have a link.

UT what crap, I vote, I pay taxes, I donate to charities, I have help COE students get high paying jobs-- don't call me a leach and threaten me and Althouse, both public employed professors who are supported to some degree with tax dollars, with violence.

don't call me a leach and threaten me and Althouse, both public employed professors who are supported to some degree with tax dollars, with violence.

He said, "dramatically". That could easily mean he intends to make a based on a movie based on this blog in which, in the course of the fictional narrative, you meet your end between four Cardinally-oriented horses, dramatically.

You are a cancer on our society that we must put down with extreme predjudice and that is precisely what we are going to do.

Legally. Democratically.

Blind as well as thin-skinned R-V? What you gonna “report” to the FBI? That someone said you must be put down, legally and democratically? *WOW* I’d be scared were I you…best buy a gun or move to that world class Environmental Engineering School in Denmark, to be safe…just don’t insult Islam whilst you’re there.

Non-smoking vegans, like Hitler and this woman, always end up taking absolutist positions.....The important thing to remember about hyperbole is that only the nuanced people of the left can understand its delicate shades. The people at this demonstration understand that the sign is hyperbole. If such a sign, comparing Obama to Hitler, were raised at a Tea Party rally, the primitive folks who attend such events would not understand the hyperbole and would rush out to assasinate the President. Tea Partiers should speak civilly and not gather in groups of five or more because they are stupid and easily led to perdition by the likes of Sarah Palin and the Koch brotheres. If tomorrow any teacher suffers a violent incident anywhere in America, it will be at least partially because of the violent rhetoric found in this forum. For shame, altmice.

Okay spelling correction and modification. I believe this threat has violent undertones, and based on past experience working in civil rights movement,the crazy mood of some folks today, I have learned to take threats seriously.

Okay spelling correction and modification. I believe this threat has violent undertones, and based on past experience working in civil rights movement,the crazy mood of some folks today, I have learned to take threats seriously.

This is the exact reason why America will never go back to being the nation it once was. Everybody has gotten fat off of the system and nobody is willing to make any sacrifices to right the ship and give any concessions. We are broke people! Simple as that. We no longer have the money to have these unions.

So, R-V I get the impression you work on a college campus. How do you walk home or to the parking lot at night? I mean it’s all dark n’ stuff, the scary bad people/zombies/ut might be lurking in the shadows! Yhwh Above dood/doodette if some words on an Internet Comment board frighten you, how do you function in the Real World? Are you a Pierson’s Puppeteer by any chance, at least then your cowardice is a genetic trait. If you are, good you tell me when, exactly, the Gamma Wave blast will be moving thru this Galactic Sector, I need to know if it’s a good idea to buy a house or not.

You have the choice quit your job and go somewhere else. If you don't like the pay/benefits then see if you can go elsewhere, if you can't find it anywhere then maybe just maybe you were getting over paid.

These are Americans whose jobs can neither be outsourced nor performed by illegal aliens,...

Yes they can and are being outsourced to private schools and homeschooling in droves.

BTW-Aren't illegals demanding access to college? Why wouldn't they be hired if they earn the proper credential? (apparently no one has thought this through to the obvious next step/demand.)

We also issue student visas to hundreds of thousand of foreign undergrads. They have been vetted for visas, maintain excellent gpas, have a strong work ethic, and are fluent in English?

I'm sure many would be happy to accept provisional green card status and like their peers in other industries/professions, would cost less as they wouldn't require pensions and long term perks. It would be a taxpayer, student and diversity win-win...or do you not walk the walk?

"I vote, I pay taxes, I donate to charities, I have help COE students get high paying jobs ..."

You do those things in your capacity as a private citizen.

We all vote. We all pay taxes. We all donate to charities and help our fellow men.

None of that makes you special. Those are the minimum requirements of participating in our democracy. None of that entitles you to anything.

In your capacity as a government official, you enjoy NO rights. You do not have a "right" to bargain with other of your government friends for massive unjustified raises, bonuses, exhorbitant benefits and unpayable pensions.

Tha taxpayers are tired of one government official giving the other a raise ... and then watching as the favor is returned.

We're fucking sick of this thievery and we're going to fucking put a stop to it. You'll be lucky if you all don't end up in prison like the city officials in Bell, CA ended up when their little connivances were uncovered.

Okay spelling correction and modification. I believe this threat has violent undertones, and based on past experience working in civil rights movement,the crazy mood of some folks today, I have learned to take threats seriously. Man is it a good thing that Dr. King didn’t have to rely on R-V as an ally….Between the Klan and R-V getting the vapours, Blacks might never have gotten the vote….

Very good with the crazy mood thing…an innuendo of “Tucson” without actually using the word, it invokes the beleaguered zeitgeist of the Left, making you the threatened hero(ine) of this little story right? What crazy mood are we talking about, the one where the TEA Party threw out a bunch of folks it didn’t like, in ELECTIONS, or the mood of someone standing around in the richest nation on Earth comparing her Governor to “Hitler?”

The trouble here is that R-V and Ut are speaking the same language of evasive suggestion.

For R-V, it's suggesting that Ut is threatening to kill people a la Arizona. For Ut, it's the childish rant that was just murky enough to be evasive but that gave R-V the opportunity to feel heroically threatened.

waslick said... It is frightening that so-called teachers can seriously make such comparisons then be allowed into the classroom with our children......GAWD...!"

You see that is the teacher union big mistake in actually letting people meet real life teachers. Like the douchenozzle that got into it with Christie that $80,000 wasn't enough and the guy that started a fight because his quail was too small and this sweetheart and our own fascist censor roachy.....when you meet these people you realize they should not be the ones teaching our children.

They are only safe when they are bullying children. They can't stand the light of day in the real world. That is why they are teachers.

I should add that conservatives and libertarians can expect 30 percent of the vote if we have the abrasive, hateful tone espoused by Ut.

Please, Ut/Florida/New Ham is just some random idiot typing on the internet, his hateful tone reflects on no one but himself. Hell, his stuff really isn't all that vicious...most of the posters at Kos and DU make him look like David Brooks.

Comparison to Hitler has been so overdone that it really has no meaning anymore. You get compared to Hitler these days for cutting in line, littering, leaving a tip less than 18%, whatever... People who compare anyone to Hitler should themselves be compared to Bozo the Clown. We need a new evil comparison authority figure.

.....when you meet these people you realize they should not be the ones teaching our children."

Precisely.

Light is the best disinfectant and light scatters roaches.

The best thing Ann has done is just hand these pusillanimous fucks a microphone and let their priveleged condescendence take the stage.

It's an ugly, ugly sight watching these tenured hacks barking for more, more, more from a largely unemployed nation, all the while they are committing payroll fraud by calling in sick and then claiming sick day pay.

Comparison to Hitler has been so overdone that it really has no meaning anymore.

Abso-friggin-lutely. Anyone even minimally observant (as even the most marginal citizens in a democracy are supposed to be) would realize that any use of a Hitlerian (lol) image against the other side is just going to be purloined by that side. It's completely ineffectual and has been every since netgeeks started using the bunker scene from Downfall for all things unexpected.

In my opinion, the best one yet is still Hitler finding out that Scott Brown had won the senate race in Massachusetts. Classic.

"Have you any idea of how much there is to do? Do you ever think of that? Of course not, you're all too busy sticking your noses into every corner, poking around for things to complain about, aren't you? Well let me tell you something - this is exactly how Nazi Germany started! A lot of layabouts with nothing better to do than to cause trouble! Well I've had fifteen years of pandering to the likes of you, and I've had enough! I've had it!! Come on, pack your bags and get out!! OUT! RAUS!!!"

Hillarious FAIL. Hitler tried to incorporate the communist unions into his Third Reich. That is why the Nazi flag was RED. This union member has FAILED her history test. Fittingly I guess because she is a teacher?

Hey, you teachers want the taxpayer to pay for your retirement. You are nuts..I had to kick in for mine. If you don't like the job then Quit and find another one if you can. Scott is doing a great job. Again if you Don't want to teach in Florida please move on.

My feelings are fire all of those that do not want to help our country by demanding more money and hire those that are willing to do the job that is needed for the pay that can help out the entire country. The unions everywhere need to go. They kill the person ambitions and tell them what to think and do. You cannot fire the bad ones and they get paid as much as the good ones at there job.

Ok, as long as we leave the struggling small business owners alone. Instead, how about a temporary but substantial tax on the really rich, who are in large part Democratic Party contributors anyway. This will let them put their money where their mouth is. Tax the Oprahs and the Larry Davids and the CEOs of the Wall Street investment banks that we bailed out. Make it retroactive too. That would be great, just to watch them whine.

And then when that fails to bring about Nirvana, maybe the lefties will learn something about economics.

2. I've been teaching at UW Law School since 1984 and I have not once called in sick. I have never cancelled a class except to do a professional speaking engagement at a conference out of town or something like that.~~~~~

And you've never gone a day w/out posting on your blog ...

Ann, you are quite the party animal, eh as it goes w/out sayin' folk who never miss a day posting on the net are (((probably))) quite anal!

3. I don't think it's tax money that pays law professors. It's tuition. There's a classroom and a teacher lecturing or conducting a discussion. Just words in a room.

If state taxes do not pay law professors, then why does Wisconsin charge out-of-state residents more than twice as much tuition to attend its fine law school? It has to be more than the usual Cheesehead hatred of FIBs, etc. A FIB butt in a seat takes up no more room than a Cheese butt; the time required to grade the essay exam of each is likely the same, etc.

From http://www.law.wisc.edu/prospective/tuitionandcosts.html

Total Student Expense Budget for the Academic Year 2010-2011

Expenses Resident Non-Resident

Tuition $ 18,049 $ 37,586

(Minnesotans split the difference at $ 28,173)

The other expenses (books, room&board, etc.) are the same whether one is a Badger, a Gopher, or an outlander.

one of the goals of the state university is specifically to educate state residents.

Sure, like Wisconsin needs more lawyers, so it can have more law suits, to cripple and suppress more activity. Let's face it, the UWLS is the HSR of the university: even if the original cost was zero, the inevitable costs in the out years will kill you.

Hopefully, Walker will put the law school on a business basis, and focus on out-of-state students, who will pay more while being more likely to move out of state once they get their degrees. Win-win.

Joe because I am a male, I can walk on my campus without much fear, but I advise my female students to walk in pairs or call for the free shuttle bus at night. Two of my students, both males have been mugged, one near Camp Randal Stadium of all places. About my abilities to defend myself, I 've been in tight spots where guns were involved, and I am still here, but I make no macho posture because I realize how much luck and grace play in these factors. And actually I was thinking of Richard Poplwaski the guy who subscribed to conspiracy theories ---and not Az.

$80K a year? Really? My wife is a teacher in Arizona, has 8 years experience, has a Master's, and only makes $34K, AND her district took a pay cut last year because of budgetary constraints. And you're complaining of having to pay for health care and a pension plan? Wow, do I have no sympathy for your plight. How about we raise taxes on the wealthy teachers in Wisconsin to balance the budget?

But how bad an anti-Semite could Voltaire have been, considering all Jews had been expelled from France centuries before? It would be like being an anti-Martian.

So you can disparage and hate Jews all you want, but unless there are some in your neighborhood, you're not a Jew hater?

I guess if I live in a lily-white neighborhood I can disparage black folks all that I want (not that I'd really want to, most of my customers and a lot of my friends are black - besides, racism is stupid) and you lefties won't call me a racist, right?

Actually, there were many Jews in France in Voltaire's day and the 18th century saw a move towards emancipation. In the 6 centuries prior to that, French monarchs seems to have been torn between exploiting the Jews and expelling them.